Testing HttpClient setup is a task many teams underestimate until something breaks in production. Modern .NET applications rely heavily on HttpClientFactory to add features such as retries, logging, authentication, or caching. These behaviors are implemented through message handlers that form a pipeline around every outgoing request.
If one handler is missing or misordered, the entire behavior changes—sometimes silently. A retry handler that never runs or a logging handler that is skipped can lead to confusing and costly issues. That’s why verifying the correct handlers are attached during application startup is essential.
However, developers quickly discover that it is not straightforward to test this. The built-in HttpClient does not expose its handler chain publicly, and typical unit-testing approaches cannot reveal what the factory actually constructs.
This Snipp explains the entire picture:
• the problem developers face when trying to validate HttpClient pipelines
• the cause, which is rooted in .NET’s internal design
• the resolution, with a practical reflection-based method to inspect handlers exactly as the runtime creates them
Following these Snipps, you will be able to reliably confirm that your handlers—such as retry and logging—are attached and working as intended.
If you've ever thought about trying Linux but felt overwhelmed by technical jargon or complex setup, Linux Mint might be exactly what you’re looking for. Designed for everyday users, it offers a clean and familiar interface, quick setup, and a focus on stability and ease of use.
Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, one of the most widely used Linux distributions. This means you benefit from a huge software ecosystem, long-term support, and a strong community — without needing to dive deep into command-line tools unless you want to.
Linux Mint offers different desktop environments (such as Cinnamon, MATE, or Xfce), each balancing speed and visual appearance differently. You can choose what fits your hardware and personal preference best. The Software Manager also makes finding and installing applications as easy as in any modern app store.
Linux Mint is a practical starting point for anyone who wants a stable, user-friendly Linux experience — whether you're learning something new, switching operating systems entirely, or simply exploring alternatives.
We all like to believe we’d speak up against injustice — until the moment comes. The video presents a powerful real-life experiment: A professor unexpectedly orders a student, Alexis, to leave the lecture hall. No explanation. No misconduct. And no objections from her classmates.
Only after the door closes does the professor reveal the purpose of his shocking act. He asks the class why no one defended their peer. The uncomfortable truth: people stay silent when they aren’t personally affected.
The message hits hard — laws and justice aren’t self-sustaining. They rely on individuals willing to stand up for what’s right. If we ignore injustice simply because it doesn’t target us, we risk facing it ourselves with no one left to defend us.
This short demonstration challenges us to reflect on our own behavior:
Justice needs voices. Silence only protects the unjust.
Video: One of The Greatest Lectures in The World. - GROWTH™ - YouTube
Many talk about inflation — but the data tells a very different story. Switzerland, once again, offers one of the clearest signals of what is really happening in the global economy.
What’s happening in Switzerland
Why this matters
Switzerland is a global safe haven. In times of uncertainty, capital flows into the country, pushing up the Swiss franc and weighing on economic activity. This pattern often appears earlier in Switzerland than elsewhere, making it a reliable early indicator of broader global weakness.
Key insight
Central banks publicly warn about inflation, but in reality they are responding to economic slowdown. Rate cuts are not a sign of strength — they are a symptom of underlying weakness. Markets and consumers already see this: inflation expectations remain low, while concerns about jobs and income are rising.
Bottom line
The real risk is not inflation, but prolonged economic stagnation. To understand where the global economy is heading, it’s better to focus on data — and Switzerland provides one of the clearest views.
To test HttpClient handlers effectively, you need to inspect the internal handler chain that .NET builds at runtime. Since this chain is stored in a private field, reflection is the only reliable method to access it. The approach is safe, does not modify production code, and gives you full visibility into the pipeline.
The process begins by resolving your service from the DI container. If your service stores the HttpClient in a protected field, you can access it using reflection:
var field = typeof(MyClient)
.GetField("_httpClient", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
var httpClient = (HttpClient)field.GetValue(serviceInstance);Next, retrieve the private _handler field from HttpMessageInvoker:
var handlerField = typeof(HttpMessageInvoker)
.GetField("_handler", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
var current = handlerField.GetValue(httpClient);Finally, walk through the entire handler chain:
var handlers = new List<DelegatingHandler>();
while (current is DelegatingHandler delegating)
{
handlers.Add(delegating);
current = delegating.InnerHandler;
}With this list, you can assert the presence of your custom handlers:
Assert.Contains(handlers, h => h is HttpRetryHandler);
Assert.Contains(handlers, h => h is HttpLogHandler);This gives your test real confidence that the HttpClient pipeline is constructed correctly—exactly as it will run in production.
Issue
Libraries often expose many raw exceptions, depending on how internal HTTP or retry logic is implemented. This forces library consumers to guess which exceptions to catch and creates unstable behavior.
Cause
Exception strategy is not treated as part of the library’s public contract. Internal exceptions leak out, and any change in handlers or retry logic changes what callers experience.
Resolution
Define a clear exception boundary:
Internally
Catch relevant exceptions (HttpRequestException, timeout exceptions, retry exceptions).
Log them
Use the unified logging method.
Expose only a custom exception
Throw a single exception type, such as ServiceClientException, at the public boundary.
Code Example
catch (Exception ex)
{
LogServiceException(ex);
throw new ServiceClientException("Service request failed.", ex);
}This approach creates a predictable public API, hides implementation details, and ensures your library remains stable even as the internal HTTP pipeline evolves.
The main reason regular tests cannot inspect HttpClient handlers is simple: the pipeline is private. The HttpClient instance created by IHttpClientFactory stores its entire message-handler chain inside a non-public field named _handler on its base class HttpMessageInvoker.
This means:
So while Visual Studio’s debugger can show the handler sequence, your code cannot. This is why common testing approaches fail: they operate at the service level, not the internal pipeline level.
A service class typically stores a protected or private HttpClient instance:
protected readonly HttpClient _httpClient;Even if your test resolves this service, the handler pipeline remains invisible.
To validate the runtime configuration—exactly as it will behave in production—you must inspect the pipeline directly. Since .NET does not expose it, the only practical method is to use reflection. The next Snipp explains how to implement this in a clean and repeatable way.
Issue
HTTP calls fail for many reasons: timeouts, throttling, network issues, or retry exhaustion. Logging only one exception type results in missing or inconsistent diagnostic information.
Cause
Most implementations log only HttpRequestException, ignoring other relevant exceptions like retry errors or cancellation events. Over time, this makes troubleshooting difficult and logs incomplete.
Resolution
Use a single unified logging method that handles all relevant exception types. Apply specific messages for each category while keeping the logic in one place.
private void LogServiceException(Exception ex)
{
switch (ex)
{
case HttpRequestException httpEx:
LogHttpRequestException(httpEx);
break;
case RetryException retryEx:
_logger.LogError("Retry exhausted. Last status: {Status}. Exception: {Ex}",
retryEx.StatusCode, retryEx);
break;
case TaskCanceledException:
_logger.LogError("Request timed out. Exception: {Ex}", ex);
break;
case OperationCanceledException:
_logger.LogError("Operation was cancelled. Exception: {Ex}", ex);
break;
default:
_logger.LogError("Unexpected error occurred. Exception: {Ex}", ex);
break;
}
}
private void LogHttpRequestException(HttpRequestException ex)
{
if (ex.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.NotFound)
_logger.LogError("Resource not found. Exception: {Ex}", ex);
else if (ex.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.TooManyRequests)
_logger.LogError("Request throttled. Exception: {Ex}", ex);
else
_logger.LogError("HTTP request failed ({Status}). Exception: {Ex}",
ex.StatusCode, ex);
}Centralizing logic ensures consistent, clear, and maintainable logging across all error paths.
When configuring HttpClient using AddHttpClient(), developers often attach important features using message handlers. These handlers form a step-by-step pipeline that processes outgoing requests. Examples include retry logic, request logging, or authentication.
The problem appears when you want to test that the correct handlers are attached. It is common to write integration tests that resolve your service from the DI container, call methods, and inspect behavior. But this does not confirm whether the handler chain is correct.
A handler can silently fail to attach due to a typo, incorrect registration, or a missing service. You may have code like this:
But you cannot verify from your test that the constructed pipeline includes these handlers. Even worse, Visual Studio can display the handler chain in the debugger, but this ability is not accessible through public APIs.
Without a direct way to look inside the pipeline, teams cannot automatically verify one of the most important parts of their application’s networking stack. The next Snipp explains why this limitation exists.
The easiest and safest fix is to validate configuration values before Azure services are registered. This prevents accidental fallback authentication and gives clear feedback if something is missing.
Here’s a clean version of the solution:
public static IServiceCollection AddAzureResourceGraphClient(
this IServiceCollection services,
IConfiguration config)
{
var connectionString = config["Authentication:AzureServiceAuthConnectionString"];
if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(connectionString))
throw new InvalidOperationException(
"Missing 'Authentication:AzureServiceAuthConnectionString' configuration."
);
services.AddSingleton(_ => new AzureServiceTokenProvider(connectionString));
return services;
}This small addition gives you:
✔ Clear error messages
✔ Consistent behavior between environments
✔ No more unexpected Azure calls during tests
✔ Easier debugging for teammates
For larger apps, you can also use strongly typed configuration + validation (IOptions<T>), which helps keep settings organized and ensures nothing slips through the cracks.
With this guard in place, your integration tests stay clean, predictable, and Azure-free unless you want them to involve Azure.
Most Azure SDK components rely on configuration values to know how to authenticate. For example:
new AzureServiceTokenProvider(
config["Authentication:AzureServiceAuthConnectionString"]
);If this key is missing, the Azure SDK does not stop. Instead, it thinks:
“I’ll figure this out myself!”
And then it tries fallback authentication options, such as:
These attempts fail instantly inside a local test environment, leading to confusing “AccessDenied” messages.
The surprising part?
Your project may work fine during normal execution—but your API project or test project may simply be missing the same setting.
This tiny configuration mismatch means:
Once you understand this, the solution becomes much clearer.
Creating reliable HTTP client services is a challenge for many .NET developers. Network timeouts, throttling, retries, and unexpected exceptions often lead to inconsistent logging, unclear error messages, and unstable public APIs. This Snipp gives an overview of how to design a clean, predictable, and well-structured error-handling strategy for your HTTP-based services.
Readers will learn why custom exceptions matter, how to log different failure types correctly, and how to build a stable exception boundary that hides internal details from users of a library. Each child Snipp focuses on one topic and includes practical examples. Together, they offer a clear blueprint for building services that are easier to debug, test, and maintain.
The overall goal is simple: Create a .NET service that logs clearly, behaves consistently, and protects callers from internal complexity.
Running integration tests in ASP.NET Core feels simple—until your tests start calling Azure without permission. This usually happens when you use WebApplicationFactory<T> to spin up a real application host. The test doesn’t run only your code; it runs your entire application startup pipeline.
That includes:
If your app registers Azure services during startup, they will also start up during your tests. And if the environment lacks proper credentials (which test environments usually do), Azure returns errors like:
This can be confusing because unit tests work fine. But integration tests behave differently because they load real startup logic.
The issue isn’t Azure being difficult—it's your tests running more than you expect.
Understanding this is the first step to diagnosing configuration problems before Azure becomes part of your test run unintentionally.
Have you ever run an ASP.NET Core integration test and suddenly been greeted by an unexpected Azure “Access Denied” error? Even though your application runs perfectly fine everywhere else? This is a common but often confusing situation in multi-project .NET solutions. The short version: your tests might be accidentally triggering Azure authentication without you realizing it.
This Parent Snipp introduces the full problem and provides a quick overview of the three child Snipps that break down the issue step by step:
Snipp 1 – The Issue:
Integration tests using WebApplicationFactory<T> don’t just test your code—they spin up your entire application. That means all Azure clients and authentication logic also start running. If your test environment lacks proper credentials, Azure responds with errors that seem unrelated to your actual test.
Snipp 2 – The Cause:
The root cause is often a missing configuration value, such as an Azure authentication connection string. When this value is missing, Azure SDK components fall back to default authentication behavior. This fallback usually fails during tests, leading to confusing error messages that hide the real problem.
Snipp 3 – The Resolution:
The recommended fix is to add safe configuration validation during service registration. By checking that required settings exist before creating Azure clients, you prevent fallback authentication and surface clear, friendly error messages. This leads to predictable tests and easier debugging.
Together, these Snipps give you a practical roadmap for diagnosing and fixing Azure authentication problems in ASP.NET Core integration tests. If you’re building APIs, background workers, or shared libraries, these tips will help you keep your testing environment clean and Azure-free—unless you want it to talk to Azure.
When you run an ASP.NET Core API from the command line, it will not use the port defined in launchSettings.json. This often surprises developers, but it is normal behavior.
The reason is simple: launchSettings.json is only used by Visual Studio or other IDEs during debugging.
To make your app listen on a specific port when running with dotnet run or dotnet MyApi.dll, you must configure the port using runtime options such as command-line arguments, environment variables, or appsettings.json.
Key Points
launchSettings.json does not apply when starting the app from the console.dotnet run --urls "http://localhost:5050" to force a port.ASPNETCORE_URLS=http://localhost:5050appsettings.json to define Kestrel endpoints.http://0.0.0.0:5050 if running inside Docker or WSL.Robert Kiyosaki, well known for Rich Dad Poor Dad, has spent decades warning that the global monetary system is approaching a structural turning point. His central message is straightforward: when governments print too much money, trust in currency erodes—and real assets like gold, silver, and income-producing property rise in importance. Today, many of the trends he highlighted are unfolding openly.
1. Why the Current Money System Is in Its Final Phase
Kiyosaki argues that since the U.S. left the gold standard in 1971, dollars no longer represent real value but debt. As governments expand the money supply to manage crises, the purchasing power of savers declines. Asset holders, however, benefit because the prices of real estate, commodities, and metals climb when currency weakens. This widening gap between those owning assets and those relying on savings is, in his view, the root of the modern wealth divide. His famous line, “Savers are losers,” reflects this mechanism: saving cash in an inflationary system guarantees long-term loss.
2. The Three-Stage Reset: Gold → Silver → Miners
Kiyosaki outlines a specific sequence he believes always occurs during major monetary transitions:
Gold moves first.
When people lose confidence in fiat currencies, they turn to gold as a safe store of value. Sustained strength in gold prices signals that the system itself is being repriced.
Silver follows.
Cheaper than gold and essential for modern technology—solar, batteries, energy systems—silver reacts with greater volatility. Its dual role as both a monetary and industrial metal creates powerful demand during disruptions.
Mining companies move last.
Once metal prices rise, mining firms become more profitable. This stage, according to Kiyosaki, holds the greatest upside but also carries the highest operational and geopolitical risk.
3. The Importance of Rule of Law: Lessons from China and Argentina
Kiyosaki stresses that real assets are only as safe as the legal system protecting them. After losing a gold mine in China to government seizure and facing severe instability in Argentina with a silver project, he learned a crucial rule: “Never invest where the rule of law doesn’t exist.” For him, countries like the U.S., Australia, Japan, and New Zealand—where contracts and property rights are respected—are the only suitable jurisdictions for long-term asset ownership.
4. Gold and Silver as Financial Insurance
Edelmetals, in Kiyosaki’s view, are not short-term speculation but long-term protection. When capital flows out of paper assets and into tangible stores of value, we witness what he calls a “great repricing.” Metals rise not because they suddenly gain value, but because currencies lose credibility.
5. Practical Takeaway: Cash Flow + Tangible Assets
Kiyosaki’s recommended strategy blends three pillars:
Together, these form a resilient approach designed to preserve independence throughout economic resets.
TRUNCATE TABLE Explained
The SQL command TRUNCATE TABLE removes all rows from a table at once — quickly and efficiently.
Unlike DELETE, which deletes rows one by one, TRUNCATE empties the entire table without affecting its structure.
That means columns, data types, indexes, and permissions remain intact — only the data is gone.
When to Use TRUNCATE
Use TRUNCATE TABLE when
Example:
This command instantly removes all records from the customers table while keeping the table ready for new data.
Key Differences: TRUNCATE vs. DELETE
| Aspect | TRUNCATE TABLE |
DELETE FROM |
|---|---|---|
| Supports WHERE clause | No | Yes |
| Speed | Very fast | Slower |
| Rollback possible | Only in a transaction | Yes |
| Triggers fire | Usually no | Yes |
| Resets AUTO_INCREMENT | Yes (depends on DB) | No |
Important Notes
TRUNCATE is treated as a DDL command (Data Definition Language), like CREATE or DROP.TRUNCATE for temporary or helper tables where you’re certain the data can be safely removed.Retrieving data from a URL or calling a web API is one of the most common PowerShell tasks. Whether you want to check a website’s status, download a file, or interact with a REST API, PowerShell provides built-in commands for this purpose.
1. Using Invoke-WebRequest
Invoke-WebRequest is used to fetch web pages or files.
Example:
$response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://example.com"
$response.ContentThis command returns the full HTTP response, including status code, headers, and body content.
To download a file:
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://example.com/file.zip" -OutFile "C:\Temp\file.zip"2. Calling APIs with Invoke-RestMethod
For APIs that return JSON or XML, Invoke-RestMethod is the better choice. It automatically converts the response into PowerShell objects:
$data = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.github.com"
$data.current_user_urlYou can also send POST requests:
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.example.com/data" -Method POST -Body '{"name":"John"}' -ContentType "application/json"3. Running PowerShell from the Command Line
PowerShell commands can be executed directly from the traditional Windows Command Prompt:
powershell -Command "Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'https://example.com'"Or, if available, using curl:
curl https://example.comSummary
With just a few commands, PowerShell becomes a versatile tool for web requests and API communication — ideal for automation, system monitoring, or accessing online data sources.
When an IP address no longer requires access, delete its firewall rule to maintain a secure environment.
Delete a server-level rule:
EXECUTE sp_delete_firewall_rule @name = 'AllowOfficeIP';Delete a database-level rule:
EXECUTE sp_delete_database_firewall_rule @name = 'AllowDevMachine';If you encounter issues deleting rules (for instance, due to missing permissions), ensure you’re connected with sufficient administrative rights or use the Azure Portal for manual removal.
To check which IP addresses have access to your Azure SQL Database, use the following T-SQL queries:
To list server-level firewall rules:
SELECT * FROM sys.firewall_rules;To list database-level firewall rules:
SELECT * FROM sys.database_firewall_rules;This helps verify which IP ranges currently have access and ensures that no outdated or overly broad rules are active. Regular audits of firewall rules are essential for maintaining data security.
Source: Todd Kitta GitHub – Configure Firewall Settings T-SQL